


you're my dessert boy (you make me dizzy boy)

by wistfullywishing



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Roommates, Self Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2020-12-31 06:13:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21094964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wistfullywishing/pseuds/wistfullywishing
Summary: “God, I wish that I remembered what I look like,” Baekhyun complains loudly to the ceiling. “My vanity depends on it. Stupid mirrors. Who decided that vamps shouldn’t be able to see their reflections, anyway?”





	you're my dessert boy (you make me dizzy boy)

“I’m going to  _ murder  _ him!” Baekhyun screams as he thrashes around in Jongdae’s hold, struggling to break free. 

Jongdae blinks, surveying the room. The man that catcalled his best friend has this stupid, smug look on his face and if Jongdae was less reasonable than he is, he reeeeally wouldn’t be holding Baekhyun back. He’d even offer to help, but he learned long ago that there’s no point in getting into all the what-if scenarios when it comes to Baekhyun. 

Baekhyun’s emotions, positive or negative, are always heightened when he’s been drinking, but Jongdae doesn’t think he’s overreacting this time. The man (asshole) had leered and rudely propositioned Baekhyun about his  _ pretty _ lips that Jongdae doesn’t particularly care to think about or he’ll actually throw up. 

Truthfully, he's just as angry as Baekhyun, only he’s better at hiding it. Being around Baekhyun has made him into a fantastic actor, but he doesn’t want to go down that road tonight — no matter how many times he falls for that trap, it never gets any easier.

As it is, he doesn’t want them to be banned from this particular disguised blood bar (not when there are so few of them in this area; he’ll cry if one of their main sources of sustenance is taken away) nor does he want Baekhyun to be arrested for homicide. Even if he does have an excellent reason for his actions.

It really does just be like that sometimes. 

“Let me go! I just want to get one punch in!” Baekhyun is still insisting, and Certified Asshole is looking satisfied and loudly telling the other patrons how he likes them feisty. Jongdae’s blood is boiling and it would be so easy to pretend to accidentally let Baekhyun slip from his grasp and swing a fist— 

But then again, a punch in the face from a vampire would do a lot more harm than a human would be capable of inflicting. And then they’d have more problems on their hands. 

(Here is an aside about defending Baekhyun’s honor: The younger Jongdae definitely would’ve done it without hesitation in the most violent way possible. Probably would’ve been the one to throw the first punch, actually. 

But being around Baekhyun for this many years has mellowed him out somewhat, taught him to be more cautious. So now he chooses his battles wisely, balancing the pros and cons against each other in his mind. It’s an observation of his, interestingly enough, that many of the battles he has to consider are directly related to Baekhyun. 

Jongdae doesn’t really want to think about that right now, either.

And it’s funny because sometimes he’ll wonder if he’s had that same kind of stabilizing effect on Baekhyun, only in the opposite direction. If Baekhyun’s grown more spontaneous because of him. If they’re just two souls who were formerly on opposite ends of the same wavelength but now are traveling closer and closer to one another.

He wonders what would happen if they collided.)

“He’s not worth it,” Jongdae says firmly into Baekhyun’s ear, willing him not to get into a fight. Baekhyun deflates just the tiniest bit, and in his moment of unpreparedness, Jongdae sweeps him off his feet and tosses him over his own shoulder. 

“Hey!” The next instant, Baekhyun is sucked back into a whirlpool of outrage, and when he kicks out, his foot catching Jongdae’s hip, Jongdae actually hisses through clenched teeth. Had he not also been of the supernatural nature, it probably would’ve destroyed his insides, but Jongdae knows the worst he’ll see tomorrow is a blossoming of bruises over his skin (not the good kind) (he really needs to stop drinking with Baekhyun if all his thoughts are just going to go this route). 

“Come on, Baek,” he says tiredly. “Let’s go before we’re thrown out.”

As they’re making their way home through the winding streets of the city, Baekhyun pounds at Jongdae’s back the whole time, and each hit rains down upon Jongdae like a stone — but he can take it; he knows by now that the best way to calm Baekhyun’s fire is to let his best friend burn himself out. Baekhyun alternates between screaming to be let down or for Jongdae to turn around and take him back to the bar so he can teach someone a lesson, and if he’s not yelling directions, he’s spitting out curses. 

“Baekhyun,” says Jongdae, “If you don’t stop pummeling me with your iron fists, I will not hesitate to throw you straight through the ground and into hell where you belong.”

Baekhyun sneers, but he temporarily stops. “That thing about vampires not having souls is just a dumb myth.”

“I don’t know, Baek. You might be an exception. Care to find out?”

  
  


Of course he would. The more Baekhyun flails around, the farther down he slips in Jongdae’s grasp — they’re of equal strength, after all — and when they’re only a block away from their shared apartment Jongdae’s essentially carrying Baekhyun upside-down through the street by his ankles, dragging him along the pavement and taking care not to bump his head. By the time they’re home, Baekhyun’s no longer fighting him, instead silently letting himself be pulled up the stairs when they reach their apartment complex. 

Jongdae doesn’t let that fool him. He knows Baekhyun is still pissed. Just to be safe, Jongdae keeps him restrained, with his arms around Baekhyun to prevent him from making a run for it, until he gets the front door unlocked and open.

And even though Baekhyun’s not actively resisting, it still takes a good amount of effort to get them both past the front door — Baekhyun keeps trying to shut the door on Jongdae because he’s an annoying asshole like that — but the moment they finally tumble into the living room and Jongdae has the door bolted behind him, sure that Baekhyun’s not going anywhere, Baekhyun flops down onto the floor with all the grace of someone whose feet are no longer capable of holding them up after a long day. 

Even lying there with his limbs starfished out, the perfect picture of  _ tired  _ or  _ weary _ , Jongdae knows that Baekhyun has never been deadlier. Comes with the territory, after all. 

He takes a careful seat on the carpet next to Baekhyun, sitting with his legs criss-crossed and making him feel like a kindergartener waiting for instructions. He purposely leaves some space between his body and Baekhyun’s, but either Baekhyun doesn’t realize or he doesn’t care. 

“Lie down with me,” Baekhyun insists, tugging at Jongdae’s elbow — so Jongdae does; he scoots his body down and lies on the floor with his best friend, directing his gaze towards an empty patch on the ceiling. They stare in silence for a while before Jongdae can’t stand it anymore. 

He rolls over onto his side, turning to face Baekhyun, whose side profile is nicer than Jongdae remembers it being. “Are you okay?” he asks gently — Jongdae has never been one to ignore the elephant in the room, and he knows Baekhyun can’t be at ease until he finds a way to release all the anger that’s still swirling inside of him. 

“Yeah,” Baekhyun answers slowly, eyes never leaving the ceiling. “It’s just—” he makes a frustrated groan that’s probably the best enunciation of his mood at the moment, “people are so ugly, you know?”

It’s quiet in their apartment; they were blessed with walls thicker than most, and the song of the city is muted when it reaches their ears. “Yeah,” Jongdae echoes, voice sounding flat even to himself. “I know what you mean.”

“Sometimes I wish I wasn’t a vampire, just so I wouldn’t have to watch generations and generations of humans and even not-humans turn out to be terrible human beings.”

“I don’t know if that came out the same way it sounded in your head.” Jongdae grins and reaches out a finger to prod Baekhyun’s cheek. 

“Whatever, grammar is stupid anyway,” Baekhyun grumbles, batting away Jongdae’s hand. When Jongdae won’t quit, he just gives up and allows his face to be manhandled like cookie dough. 

Jongdae teases softly, “If you weren’t a vampire, you wouldn’t have met me. We wouldn’t be roommates. How would you have made it this far without me?” 

Baekhyun makes a noncommittal hum. Jongdae watches the pout of his lips until it finally smooths out into a half-smile. “I guess you’re right,” Baekhyun allows, conceding to Jongdae in that way that he always does, letting himself be brought out of his dark mood. He reaches out blindly with the hand that’s on the floor in between their bodies, and Jongdae correctly guesses what he’s looking for and tangles their fingers together.

Silence settles over them again, but it’s not uncomfortable. More than anything, Baekhyun finds solace in comforting, innocent touches.

After a while, Baekhyun breaks the silence. “Jongdae,” he begins tentatively. “What do I look like?”

“You— what?”

“I mean,” if Baekhyun wasn’t a vampire, he might actually blush, asking is so  _ embarrassing,  _ “he called me pretty, right?” 

Jongdae doesn’t know what to do, except think that  _ pretty _ isn’t even enough to begin describing Baekhyun’s beauty in his eyes — and now he maybe wishes that he’d let Baekhyun get in a good punch or two back at the bar. “Um.”

“God, I wish that I remembered what I look like,” Baekhyun complains loudly to the ceiling. “My vanity depends on it. Stupid mirrors. Who decided that vamps shouldn’t be able to see their reflections, anyway?”

Jongdae reaches out with his free hand, letting the tips of his fingers trace over Baekhyun’s wrist. “You look kind of like a puppy?” Jongdae tries, then immediately cringes at his own words as Baekhyun’s nose wrinkles. “Just kidding. That’s weird. You look soft,” he tries again.

“The fuck does that even mean?” Baekhyun asks, eyebrows creasing in distaste. “I’m literally a bloodsucker.”

“Shut up,” says Jongdae, realizing his mistake. “I mean, like, when you wear those big sweaters and your hair is all fluffy…” he trails off as Baekhyun’s blank stare quickly makes it clear that he’s most likely divulging revealing information that he should probably keep to himself. Jongdae watches on, mesmerized as an enigmatic smile tugs as the corners of Baekhyun’s lips.

“You sound like you spend a lot of time staring at me,” Baekhyun laughs quietly. “That’s funny.” Before Jongdae can ask why it’s funny, Baekhyun plows on. “Haven’t you ever been curious about what you look like? Anyway, the guy that called me pretty clearly didn’t get a good look at you,” he says. 

Jongdae blinks. This is a piece of surprising information. “Wait, really?” he asks, caught off guard. He tries not to sound as curious as he is. It feels like there are things that both of them aren’t telling the other, and if Jongdae wasn’t so drunk off his heels maybe he’d insist that they have a heart to heart chat or whatever.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun breathes absentmindedly, letting go of Jongdae’s hand to play with the sleeve of his sweater. “You’re gorgeous.” 

Jongdae’s thoughts feel like they’re swimming in a pool of molasses as his mind sluggishly tries to remember what  _ gorgeous _ means. “Thanks,” he says, searching for some better words. He thinks harder, and suddenly he has a great idea. “I can try to draw you, if you want?”

Wait.

“Can you even draw?” Baekhyun asks with a mixture of amusement and interest, craning his head to the side so he can look at Jongdae.

“To be honest, no,” Jongdae admits. “But I’m willing to try for you.”

Oh. He doesn’t know if he meant to say it quite like that. Quite so…  _ sappy _ . How does he save this situation?

Baekhyun opens his mouth, and Jongdae is so scared of what he’ll say that in a panic, he blurts the first thing that comes to mind.

“Only because you have a huge-ass nose,” says Jongdae.

_ Oh my god _ . Did he really just…?

He might as well jump out the window now.

Jongdae holds his breath as he waits anxiously for Baekhyun’s response. But instead of looking affronted, Baekhyun just raises an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yes,” Jongdae continues,  _ oh boy where is this going,  _ “Here, I can draw it for you if you like. Pass me that piece of paper on the table over there.”

Baekhyun looks skeptical, but he gets up and trudges on his knees over to the messy coffee table, returning with a pen that’s almost out of ink and a clean napkin, both of which he hands off to Jongdae. “Make me pretty.”

Jongdae rolls his eyes, but he draws. 

Even if Jongdae wasn’t a vampire, he’d still have a sharp eye for detail — at least when it comes to Baekhyun. He puts the skill to use now, letting his eyes sweep over every curve of Baekhyun’s face, his smooth skin, his every freckle and beauty mark. 

Baekhyun fidgets at first, almost like he’s not sure if maybe he should pose or what, but eventually he just settles into a lounging position at the foot of the couch, legs stretched to give him an aura of casualty that he hopes is enough to fool Jongdae.

Baekhyun’s eyes never really leave Jongdae’s face. Jongdae works, and in return, he studies how Jongdae’s brows furrow in concentration as silence hangs in the air between them, the tension so thick it could be cut with a knife.

But then, Baekhyun watches as Jongdae’s expression changes — first to something akin to panic before it shifts smoothly to amusement, all in the blink of an eye. And then Jongdae snickers softly, making something in Baekhyun’s chest wind itself tight with longing. 

That really should have been Baekhyun’s first warning sign that one, he’s probably not going to get the portrait of himself he signed up for, and two, he’s probably in too deep. 

Then, Jongdae finishes a lot faster than Baekhyun expected considering the other vampire had blatantly said he can’t draw, and that should’ve been the second warning sign. Of course, by the time it even occurs to him to be suspicious, it’s already far too late.

“Okay, done,” Jongdae says, and then tosses the pencil aside and flips his paper around with a flourish for Baekhyun to see.

There are two ways that this could go. 

Here’s how it could happen:

Jongdae is a horrible artist on purpose, not even trying to make an honest effort at his task. He relishes in the momentary horror that shows on Baekhyun’s face when he takes in the exaggerated nose, the floppy canine ears, but then an actual  _ growl _ escapes Baekhyun’s throat and he’s lunging at the napkin displayed proudly in Jongdae’s hands. 

Baekhyun snatches the paper, crumpling it in his fist and throwing the wad at Jongdae’s face when he’s done, but there’s a smile that’s tugging at the corner of his mouth, a laugh that he’s doing his best to hide. 

Jongdae twists his arm behind him, blindly reaching for the stack of napkins he knows is on the coffee table, and when his fingertips make contact with it he flings the whole stack at Baekhyun, laughing when the paper goes sailing through the air and hits its mark. 

“You ass.” Baekhyun honestly gasps in shock, making a funny little indignant noise when it sinks in what Jongdae’s done, and from there on it just escalates into a full-scale fight, starting with any small object that can be turned into a projectile — they’re both made of uncrackable stone, after all — and ending with them swinging around couch pillows, each trying to land a good hit on the other.

“That was mean!” Jongdae wails out dramatically when Baekhyun knocks him over, and Baekhyun’s laughing that he deserved it, the sound sticking with Jongdae like his favorite song. Until he sticks a leg out and trips Baekhyun, sending him crashing to the ground too.

All of the fight seems to melt away from Baekhyun, or maybe he’s just tired of sulking around and pretending to be mad at Jongdae. Baekhyun shakes his head, holds his arms out open in front of him, and says, “Come here, Jongdae.”

Well. Jongdae would be dumb not to obey.

They sit together on the floor wrapped up in each other’s arms, and at some point, Jongdae’s head slips down to Baekhyun’s shoulder, and if he’s lucky Baekhyun will turn his head just so and their lips will meet.

Jongdae can hope, right?

If only. 

What actually happens is this: 

Jongdae is a horrible artist because he just sucks at drawing. Baekhyun’s eyebrow lifts when Jongdae shows him, and for a second Jongdae thinks he’s going to try and spare his feelings.

Baekhyun doesn’t though, because he’s Baekhyun and he’s also not completely sober. Jongdae really shouldn’t have expected any different. 

“Your drawing looks stupid. I don’t really look like that, right?” 

Jongdae frowns. He has half a mind to lie to Baekhyun just to see how he would react, but he doesn’t because he likes to think of himself as a relatively good person. “You know I’m not that good of an artist. You probably wouldn’t be able to do any better.”

He ends up regretting the words as soon as they’re out because Baekhyun’s eyes glitter at the challenge. He says, raising an eyebrow at Jongdae, “Pass me another napkin.”

He’d say Baekhyun works like a true artist, but the only reference Jongdae really has is the scene from  _ Titanic  _ where Jack draws Rose before they fuck, and Jongdae knows his luck isn’t that good. It’s another fifteen minutes before he starts to itch with impatience, and he’s sure the crick in his neck is going to be permanent when Baekhyun finally announces that he’s done drawing, putting him out of his misery.

“Well,” Jongdae’s can’t say he’s not curious, “What does yours look like?”

Baekhyun shows him.

“Oh my god, Baek, that’s even worse than my drawing. My hair does  _ not _ look like that. A middle part? Really?” 

Baekhyun wordlessly smirks, satisfied. Jongdae wants to wipe it away (with his lips) (he needs to stop). 

“Forget the puppy thing. You look like a…” he searches feebly for the right insults, “… short, stubborn-willed, smart-mouthed, good-for-nothing teenage hoodlum.”

He really needs to work on his roasting skills, but Baekhyun’s smirk drops anyway. “You take that back right now.”

It’s Jongdae’s turn to flash a smile. “Who’s gonna make me?” 

The muffled echoes of a car horn can be heard in that moment from the lull outside, as if the city is backing him up, purposely riling up Baekhyun. The older vamp is always volatile when drunk: Jongdae knows this well, and he’d be lying if he said he’s not using that fact to his advantage, not hoping to set off a bout of Baekhyun’s characteristic competitive playfulness. 

He’s not disappointed — maybe the stars are in Jongdae’s favor tonight. Baekhyun lets out a cry of mock fury and launches himself straight at Jongdae, hands ready to bash his head into the ground, the same elegant hands that are usually soft and gentle. They’re a tangle of limbs rolling around on the floor and bumping into furniture here and there, chaotic and messy. For a while Jongdae manages to gain the upper hand, but then Baekhyun rolls them over—

And suddenly they’re a lot closer than Jongdae thought, maybe closer than he was prepared for. Baekhyun has a fist in Jongdae’s hair, and Jongdae can smell the alcohol on Baekhyun’s breath, count the subtle sunspots on his cheek. 

The proximity is already affecting him, but of course — Jongdae’s eyesight is a lot sharper than an ordinary human’s, and it’s — it’s a lot. Maybe it’s a good thing that humans are practically blind, then, because Jongdae has no idea how anyone could survive seeing Baekhyun like  _ this.  _

They stare at each other, and then Baekhyun eyes crinkle as he whispers, “You have a really pretty mouth. It curls so nicely when you smile.”

Jongdae tries to prevent the aforementioned smile, he tries  _ so fucking hard _ — but really, why does he even bother anymore? He’s like,  _ hypnotized _ , just from looking at Baekhyun, and if they were both still alive their cheeks would be flushed from a combination of exertion and alcohol. 

But they’re here, in this nanosecond happening now, surrounded by the walls of their paper home and the soundtrack of the city. Wholly captivated a thousand times over, Jongdae only smiles stupidly as Baekhyun leans down to connect their mouths.

It’s like everything happening in slow motion, except it’s all so fast and Jongdae is the only one who can’t keep up. Baekhyun tastes like intoxication, and Jongdae has never in his six-hundred-twenty-four years on this planet tried drugs but he swears he understands now why people get hooked; this is what those chemicals would do to him if they could have any impact on his bloodstream. If he wasn’t immortal and built to withstand anything. 

  
  
  


And yet after all this time, it’s still Baekhyun who gets him the weakest. 

  
  
  


After a while, Jongdae rolls them over so he can be the one to look down at Baekhyun. He means to ask him about the kiss, but staring at Baekhyun’s face caged in between his arms, hair fanned out and disheveled and somehow the most beautiful he’s ever been, Jongdae forgets all the words. 

“You have a small mole right here,” Jongdae murmurs, leaning over Baekhyun who’s laying on the carpet, the tip of his finger gently tracing the edge of Baekhyun’s upper lip. “Do you remember?” 

And when Baekhyun smiles, it’s like Jongdae will honest to god  _ die  _ if he can’t kiss him again, and before he can do just that or really think about what he’s asking, the words just tumble out of his mouth, “Would you let me drink from you?”

Baekhyun pauses for a moment, just really looking at Jongdae, furrowed brows and all. Jongdae has no idea what he’s looking for, but he seems to have found it if the way he grins — eyes roving over Jongdae’s face, mouth flashing an extra-sharp incisor — is any indication. 

“You know I would, Jongdae,” he says evenly. Zero hesitation. 

And Jongdae can’t handle it. 

Here’s the deal: vampires do have blood in their bodies, surprise surprise, just not their own. It’s kind of weird if you really think about it, having their maker’s blood — someone who’s oftentimes just a stranger!  _ Yikes _ — coursing through their veins. And it’s definitely a thing, drinking someone else’s blood from a vampire’s neck, but it’s a  _ thing _ , something that symbolizes astronomical levels of trust and superbonds and a bunch of bullshit Jongdae’s lowkey too tired to think about right now. 

“You’d let me give you a vamp hickey?” Jongdae muses, trying not to let his voice wobble the way his legs would be if they weren’t already horizontal on the fucking floor. It’s some sort of testament to their friendship that of course Baekhyun would immediately let him do whatever he wanted without even asking why Jongdae would want to. Jongdae doesn’t even know if Baekhyun  _ knows  _ the significance of what he’s asking. 

“Yeah,” Baekhyun answers, straightforward in the way he is, “‘Cause I know you wouldn’t ask unless it was really important to you, dumb romantic loser that you are.”

Jongdae scrunches up his nose, considering, “Valentine’s Day is the best holiday.”

“You’re entitled to your own wrong opinion, but I’m just going to remind you that Valentine’s Day is a man-made holiday created to fuel the consumerist society that we live in now, and it has no meaning other than the ones humans assigned it so that they could get away with only treating their significant others well once a year.” 

“You’re  _ so  _ mean to me,” Jongdae sighs, his fingertips just barely cradling the side of Baekhyun’s jaw. 

“Yeah, and you still wanna drink my blood so what does that say about you?”

_ Ah, fuck,  _ Jongdae thinks silently,  _ he’s onto me, what the fuck am I supposed to do now?  _

Instead of calling the police or taking Baekhyun to court or any of his other knee-jerk reactions, Jongdae just smirks at him and hopes he doesn’t look too greasy. “Do you want the cheesy answer or the stupid one?”

“Hmm, humor me for a second,” Baekhyun says, brushing a thumb over Jongdae’s cheek. “Can you give me the sappy one? I just wanna feel  _ appreciated  _ in this cruel world, man.”

Jongdae offers, “Because I want you to remember that even though you came from other places and someone else made you into a vamp, you still chose to come to me?” and from the way Baekhyun’s smile extends to his eyes, he knows it’s what Baekhyun needed to hear. That he’s given the right answer. 

“Ah, Jongdae,” Baekhyun muses after a beat of sparkly silence, the tiny crinkles by his eyes giving away how pleased he is. “Choosing you was the best decision I’ve ever made.”

  
  
  


_ It wasn’t always like this.  _

  
  
  


Several hundred years ago:

Baekhyun really shouldn’t be out at this hour.

Maybe it’s his residual human instincts, but walking in the city at night always unnerves him. It’s been eight months since he was turned, and he still does his best to avoid being alone after the sun has gone down. 

He’s a shitty vampire. His maker would be so disappointed to see how he turned out. But also, fuck his maker.

The dim light of street lamps lining the cobblestone pavement is the only source of illumination he has, but of course he can see just fine in the dark. He’s walking rapidly, not because he’s scared of the neverending blackness, but because it’s too silent save for the faint buzz of insects every other second or so. 

Baekhyun can’t stand it — there’s this strange feeling of foreboding leaking into his senses, like something is odd, but he can’t quite place what.

He turns a corner and quickens his pace. His intuition is screaming at him that something is definitely off. 

_ There.  _

He knows. He can’t believe it took him this long to notice.

The sounds of his footsteps are out of pace with his feet. Meaning they’re not his own footsteps at all. 

There’s definitely someone following him. 

At the very least, Baekhyun thinks dryly, one of the perks of being a vampire includes this heightened appreciation for his previously latent self-preservation instincts. He shifts his body position ever so slightly, creating space for him to subtly glance over his shoulder, and—

There is fucking no one there but darkness. Dagnabbit, he can’t see a single person along this road but himself. 

If his heart wasn’t already still, it sure as hell isn't beating now. 

_ Fuck, he really wasn’t in the mood for this tonight.  _ Baekhyun slows his pace, coming to a stop in the middle of the street. He belatedly wonders if his own exhaustion is playing tricks on him. It’s really been too long since he last fed.

But no, the footsteps have also stopped, just a beat too late. The difference in milliseconds would be indiscernible to a human, but he’s not a human. And now that he thinks about it, there’s a good chance that whatever he’s dealing with isn’t either.

The night is eerily still; even with such intense vampire awareness of his surroundings, Baekhyun can hardly hear the wind whistling over the noise of his own fear.

He just has to make it to safety. 

But, he starts walking again, and the  _ footsteps start again.  _

Thoroughly spooked, Baekhyun ducks into a nearby alleyway.  _ Fuck being a vampire, okay, even if he’s physically stronger, he really doesn’t want to deal with the logistics of staging an untraceable crime tonight.  _ In his haste to hide, he accidentally kicks a stray aluminum can across the cobblestones, and he swears the loud skittering noise that results is magnified a thousand times in the dead silence.

He almost screams when a figure melts out of the shadows, stepping into the light, but it’s just—

It’s a boy. 

All the panic evaporates from his body. 

“Okay, first of all,  _ fuck  _ you, what the fuck are you even trying to do?” Baekhyun doesn’t even stop to think before running his mouth; he’s just that offended by this boy’s pretty cat eyes,  _ what is happening? _ “I don’t have the time for games, why are you messing with me like this? Like if you wanna fight me just  _ fight me _ —”

“Oh, come on,” the beautiful boy interrupts smoothly, looking up with an annoying sort of half-smile, the kind that means he knows something that Baekhyun doesn’t. It’s the absolute worst kind of smile. “Don’t tell me that you really think I’m here to hurt you?” 

Before Baekhyun can answer, the boy stops for a second to consider, tilting his head to the side, and his eyes widen. “Okay, well, to be honest. I was honestly just planning to mind my own business tonight ‘cause I was hungry, but then I ran into you and I couldn’t tell that you were a vamp at first. You see where I’m going with this, right?”

One of Baekhyun’s eyebrows lifts involuntarily, before he’s done fully processing the meaning behind the other boy’s words. “You mean— _ seriously? _ ”

“Yeah, in the spirit of full disclosure I gotta say you were gonna be dinner ‘cause that’s because I thought you were the nearest human around, but anyway! Full circle, since you’re a vamp too. So! In that case, wanna be friends?”

_ Friends?  _ Fat chance, Baekhyun internally snorts. Maybe Baekhyun will hate him.  _ He was going to have Baekhyun for dinner!  _ It’s really too soon to tell. 

“How about... wait, friends? Just like that? Why don’t you tell me your name first, at least.”

“It’s Jongdae. So, yeah? We can be bloodsucker buddies together! You look like you haven’t eaten in a bit, too. Actually, do you wanna look for a blood bar right now?”

“Right now, like, this very instant?” Baekhyun is so tired, he’s about to say no, maybe another night—

But then Jongdae smiles, all playful curves and bright energy, and it’s been so long since Baekhyun has felt the effects of someone so seemingly  _ alive _ . And it’s infectious. 

And he maybe wants more of this feeling. 

So when Jongdae says cheerily, his fangs glinting silver in the moonlight, “Right now, if you’re up for it?”

Baekhyun nods hurriedly before he can change his mind, and then privately he thinks actually,  _ fuck _ , maybe this here is going to be the start of a beautiful partnership. 

**Author's Note:**

> i originally started this in oct of 2017 for the previous round of monsterfest, but had to drop out that year. its interesting to see how much this fic has evolved over time and im happy i was finally able to finish it!
> 
> thank you to everyone that's helped me w this, esp the mods who were so sweet and understanding! sending lots of love to everyone <3


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